EARLY DETECTION
The importance of finding breast cancer early:
The goal of screening exams for early breast cancer detections to find cancers before they start to cause symptoms. screening refers to test and exams use to find a disease, such as cancer, in people who do not have any symptoms. Early detection means using a approach that allows earlier diagnosis of breast cancer that otherwise might have occurred.
Breast cancer that are found because they are causing symptoms, tends to be larger and more likely to have already spread beyond the breast. In contrast, breast cancers found during screening exams are more likely to be smaller and still confined to the breast. The size of the breast cancer and how far it has spread are some of the most important factors in predicting the prognosis of a woman with the disease.
Most doctors feel that early detection tests for breast cancer can save thousands of lives each year and that many more lives could be saved if women and their health care providers took advantage of these test. Early detection of breast cancer improves the chances
that breast cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage and treated successfully. Early detection, Early prevention.
Getting regular screening tests is the best way for men and women
to lower the risk of dying from breast cancer. Screening test can find breast cancer early when its most treatable.
Clinical breast exam
A clinical breast exam (CBE) is an examination of your breast by a health professional, such as a doctor, nurse practitioner, nurse, or physician assistant. For this exam, you undress from the waist up. The health professional will first look at your breast for abnormalities in size or shape, or changes in the skin of the breast or nipple. Then using the pads of the fingers, the examiner will gently feel (palpate) your breasts..
Special attention will be given to the shape and texture of the breasts, location of any lumps, and whether such lumps are attached to the skin or to deeper tissues. The area under both arms will also be examined.
During the CBE it is a good time for a woman who don't know how to examine their breast to learn the right way to do it form their health care professional. Ask your doctor or nurse to teach you and watch your technique.
Breast awareness and self-exam
Beginning in their 20s, women should be told about the benefits and limitations of breast self-exam (BSE). Women should be aware of how their breasts normally look and feel and report any new breast changes to a health professional as soon as they are found. Finding a breast change does not necessarily mean there is a cancer.
A woman can notice changes by knowing how her breasts normally look and feel and feeling her breast for changes (breast awareness), or by
choosing to use a step-by approach and using a specific schedule to examine her breasts.
Women with breast implants can do BSE. It may be useful to have the surgeon help identify the edges of the implant so that you know what you are feeling. There is some thought that the implants push out the breast tissue and may make it easier to examine. Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding can also choose to examine their breast regularly.
The best time for a woman to examine her breast is when the breast are not tender or swollen. Women who examine their breasts should have their technique reviewed during their periodic health exams by their health care professional.
How to examine your breast:
Lie down on your back and place your right arm behind your head. The exam is done while lying down, not stand up. This is because when lying down the breast tissue spread evenly of the chest wall and is as thin as possible, making it much easier to feel all the breast tissue.
Use the finger pads of the 3 middle fingers on your left hand to feel for lumps in the right breast. Use overlapping dime-sized circular motions of the finger pads to feel the breast tissue.
Use 3 different levels of pressure to feel all the breast tissue. Light pressure is needed to feel the tissue closest to the skin,medium pressure to feel a little deeper, and firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to the chest and ribs. A firm ridge in the lower curve of each breast is normal. If you're not sure how hard to press, talk with your doctor or nurse. Use each pressure level to feel the breast tissue before moving on the next spot. Move around the breast in an up and down pattern starting at an imaginary line drawn straight down your side from the underarm and moving across the breast to the middle of the chest bone (sternum or breastbone). Be sure to check the entire breast area going down until you feel only ribs and up to the neck or collar bone (clavicle)
There is some evidence to suggest that the up-and-down pattern (sometimes called the vertical pattern) is the most effective pattern for covering the entire breast without missing any breast tissue. Repeat the exam on your left breast, using the finger pads of the right hand.
While standing in front of a mirror with your hands pressing firmly down on your hips, look at your breast for any changes of size, shape, contour, or dimpling, or redness or scaliness of the nipple or breast skin. (The pressing down o the hips position contracts the chest wall muscles and enhances any breast changes).
Examine each underarm while sitting up or standing and with your arm only slightly raised so you can easily feel in this area. Raining your arm straight up tightens the tissue in this area and makes it harder to examine.
This procedure for doing breast self-exam is different from previous recommendations. These changes represent an extensive review of the medical literature and input from and expert advisory group. There is evidence that position (lying down). area felt, pattern of coverage of the breast, and use of different amounts of pressure increase a woman's ability to find abnormal areas.
Newer Technologies for breast cancer screening
Mammography is the current standard test for breast cancer screening. MRI is also recommended along with mammograms for some women at high risk for breast cancer. Other tests, such as ultrasound, are now being studied as well.
Magnetic resonance imaging
For certain women at high risk for breast cancer, screening magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is recommended along with a yearly mammogram. MRI is not generally recommended as a screening tool by itself, because although it is a sensitive test, it may still miss some cancers that mammograms would detect. MRI may also be used in other situations, such as to better examine suspicious areas found by a mammogram. MRI can also be used in women who have already been diagnosed with breast cancer to better determine the actual size of the cancer and to look for any other cancers in the breast. MRI scans use magnets and radio waves, instead of x-rays, to produce very detailed, cross-sectional images of the body. The most useful MRI exams for the breast imaging uses contrast material (gadonlinium) that is injected into a small vein in the arm before or during the exam. This improves the ability of the MRI to clearly show breast tissue detail. MRI scans an take a long time, often up to an hour. You have to lie inside a narrow tube, which is confining and may upset people with claustrophobia (a fear of enclosed spaces). The machine makes loud buzzing and clicking noises that you may find disturbing. Some places provide headphones with music to block this noise out. Although MRI is more sensitive in detecting cancers than mammograms, it also has a higher false-positive rate (when the test finds something that turns out not to be cancer). which results in more recalls and biopsies. This is why is is not recommended as a screening test for women at average risk of breast cancer, as it would result in unneeded biopsies and other test in a large portion of these women. Just as mammography uses x-ray machines that are specially designed to image the breast, breast MRI also requires special equipment. Breast MRI machines produce higher quality images than MRI machines designed for head, chest, or abdominal MRI. However, many hospitals and imaging centers do not have dedicated breast MRI equipment available. It is important that screening MRI's are done at facilities that can perform an MRI-guided biopsy. Otherwise,the entire scan will need to repeated at another facility when the biopsy is done.
MRI is more expensive than mammography. Most major insurance companies will likely pay for these screening test if a woman can be shown to be at high risk, but it's not yet clear if all companies will. At this time there are concerns about the cost and limited access to high-quality MRI breast screening services for women at high risk of breast cancer
The information you find on our site is for education only it does not take the place of you seeking medical help from a license professional if you have any signs of breast cancer or any other medical issues.